Chávez, can you spare $20 million?

Katy says: Recently, I came upon a story about a cost-effective alternative to expensive mass-transit systems. It’s called Aerobus and it has been in use in the city of Mannheim, Germany, as well as other places, for many years now.

The system is basically a train made up of several modules that are transported via cables connected by towers 500 meters apart. It is electrical, can reportedly transport up to 40 thousand people per hour and has a construction cost of about $20 million per mile (as opposed to $400 million for conventional subway systems).

I’m no engineer, but it seems that given Caracas’ enormous traffic problems, we should be discussing practical, inexpensive solutions such as this one. The only solution can’t be for Venezuelans to patiently wait in their colas until the Metro reaches Guarenas or El Hatillo.

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